CC BY
65
THE CONFLICTOLOGICAL COMPETENCE OF A MANAGER IN AN EDUCATION SYSTEM:
PROBLEMS AND WAYS OF DEVELOPMENT
D. K. Kamenova
Summary: The report discusses the conflictological competence of a manager in an education system and determines its key role in the system of competencies required for his professional fulfillment. The work offers a didactic model for achievement of this competence based on the logic of motivation, orientation and training. The methodology is intended to enable a manager to master the strategies for resolving and introducing creative and innovative types of conflicts in practice.
Keywords: conflictological competence of a manager, role of conflictological competence in the system of professional knowledge, problems and ways of the conflictological competence development.
Introduction. The scope of the system-based courses in pedagogy, psychology and teaching techniques is too limited to include the subjects related to organizational and pedagogical conflicts. Conflict management is an area, in which teachers, and especially those of them who select to manage educational programs, are not specifically trained in the course of their university education. Behavior of managers in an education system and the strategies applied to resolve conflicts more often than not turn out to be a result of imitation or are shaped on a situational basis at a low level of conceptualization. The first confrontations with a diversity of conflict-induced problems in the school environment or in the external organizational environment eventuate in unsatisfactory performance and serious high-stress experiences. The term "conflict-induced” suggests a few alternatives: a conflict may escalate (in its turn, a conflict can be constructive or destructive depending on its scope and determinants), or it can transform into the "avoidance of violence”, or it can perform a preparatory function involving conflict prevention. Today, conflict management is a real serious problem.
1. Relevance of developing the conflictological competence of a manager in an education system. A new profile of the educational programs and the social environment require a specialized pedagogical investigation, analysis and systematization of the results of training in conflictology. This area is poorly developed in Bulgaria, as opposed to West-European and Russian traditions. An analysis of specialized literature and the social
170
practices enable us to define the problem of the study as one associated with the inconsistency between the acknowledged need for developing and improving the conflictological competence on the basis of differentiated training and an insufficient number of systematized theoretical and practical developments available to us. Today, the conflictological competence is an integral part of a manager’s professional competence. It is especially important for a manager of educational programs. The school environment is a place where psycho-social characteristics of different generations and pedagogical staff with different professional aptitudes, as well as interests and culture of parents of the students interfere with each other. Moreover, a transition of society from one social system to another, as it happened in Bulgaria and other societies in Eastern Europe, adds to the conflict-induced problems through the process of changes in the economic, education, cultural, political and other subsystems.
At the third level, the confrontation of civilizations also gives rise to conflicts. We can conclude that a manager of an education system works under a complex conflict-induced situation with the components of different types, such as pedagogical, social, working, organizational, ethnical, etc.
2. The key conflictological problems faced by a manager in an education system.
1. "Resolving”1 of the new conditions of conflict that form a basis for a discussion about the conflictologial competence of a manager (including a teacher acting as a manager of the educational process) gives rise to the question of changes in characterology and style of behavior of the School and the professionals working in it (since any organizational change causes resistance). This question is inherent in the education system. Pedagogy of cooperation, support and reconciliation implies "nonintervention” and "nonviolence” (С. Xypas 2001, 73-75). "Nonintervention, nonviolence and making allowances are associated with a big and complex problem of acceptance of the other person, who is also different”. The inclusion and involvement of everybody in a dialogue should be built on the truly shared equivalence and equal positions, nondiscrimination, positive evaluation and use of specific advantages (not drawbacks) of any community, any group, any family or any person” (Rasheva-Merdjanova, 8).
1
J. Galtung prefers to refer to conflict transformation as "a prevention of future violence”. He understands that conflicts - in the broadest sense of the term - are naturally associated with personal development, which gives him grounds for excluding from consideration the issues of coping with or final resolution of conflicts.
171
2. Another relevant problem, which a school manager has to take into account and overcome, is a genuine intercultural [communication], which has different levels, such as national, ethnical, social, family, political, religious, gender, generation, professional, personal, etc.
3. The decentralization of financial resources in the education system creates another essential problem, which tests professional morality and ethics of a manager.
4. A contradiction between the basic pedagogical specialization of a manager and a necessity to perform pedagogical control over the achievements of other teachers specialized in different fields also creates some problems.
5. The increasing competition on the market of educational services against the public needs expressed by parents.
6. Another problem is associated with the European requirements to the qualification of staff which should ensure the availability of talented teachers.
A thorough analysis of manager’s work can discover many more other problems that can represent the potential sources of conflicts.
3. The essence of the conflictological competence. Since a competency is understood as a certain level of knowledge and abilities for performing a particular activity, the competence supplements the competency due to the abilities of an individual and his socio-personal introspection. The competence means mastering, developing and possessing a certain competency, including a personal attitude to the object of activity (Nenova, 13). Consequently, as long as competency remains a social professional and educational requirement, the competence is enriched by the socio-personal characteristics of the competency (ibid.).
According to the definition of the International Board for Standards in Training, Performance and Instruction, the competence includes a respective set of knowledge, skills and abilities, which enable a person to efficiently perform activities corresponding to a particular profession or to work in such a way which would conform or even exceed the standards for the particular profession or working setting (fx, R. C., Fields, D. C., & Foxon, M. - underlined by me —D.K.). Consequently, the structure of the conflictological competence can be presented as shown on the following diagram (see Diagram 1 below).
172
Diagram 1. Relationships between conflictological competence and other competencies of a manager in an education system
4. The place of conflictological competence in the system of knowledge and powers of a manager of an education system. Any
conflict is based on interaction. No interaction, no conflict (Grishina, 51). An investigation of the conflictological competence helps to discover strengths and weaknesses of the psychological and socio-personal characteristics of learners. As shown on Diagram 1 above, any competence, as an opportunity for successful activity, is related, directly or indirectly, to the conflictological competence. Moreover, as long as any competence is tested in practice, down to the critical point of interaction, it directly depends on the level of the conflictological competence. Using any of them, very nearly to the manifestation of it in its pure form, in most cases leads to undermining it with a definite/indefinite dose of conflict.
5. The ways of the conflictological competence development.
The investigation of the essence and place of the conflictological competence naturally points to training and requires that an activity-based approach is applied (for its attributes from the pedagogical perspective, see: Belich, B., and Stefanova, Moscow, 1995). This dynamic training associated with the current investigation of the conflictological competence enables us to identify a few independent variables as follows: a) motivation maintenance: a continuous aspiration of learners to achieve certain style(s)
173
of behavior in order to be able to manage a conflict; b) mastering knowledge, skills and abilities of a school manager to solve and manage conflicts; c) mastering the strategies and an ability to apply them in the creation and management of innovative and creative types of conflicts in organization as a professional and personal achievement of manager. "In the psychologically justified conception of perception ... the process takes place in two dimensions: aptitude and ability, and behavior, which is understood as a result” (Stefanova, 2005, p. 304). Neither of them can be referred to as more or less important than the other two. That is why it is necessary to consider them all as a whole (Diagram 2).
Diagram 2. Components of conflictological competence
It is assumed that an investigation of the said relations will give an impetus to the efficient development of the conflictological competence and serve as a basis for the creation of a personal project for its improvement.
The conflictological competence is evaluated by the correlation between the psychological characteristics of a learner and the structure of training. The structure of conflictological competence shown on the diagram above corresponds to three stages of the didactic structure: the motivation stage manifests itself in recognizing one’s own actual and potential needs for specific conflictological knowledge and abilities to analyze, diagnose
174
and prevent a conflict situation, as well as for conflict management techniques; the orientation stage provides guidance (methods and aids) in conflict management; and the training stage involves the practical use of knowledge and skills learned! Every learner who wants to achieve the successful competence should be "guided” through the said stages of the educational process.
Conclusions. Our study proves that providing school managers with specialized training in conflictology and highly specialized training in conflict management and prevention would entail a change in general level of their conflictological competence. Moreover, successful conflict management contributes to the creation of a personal project for the continuous improvement of this competence to the level of increasingly informed use of innovative and creative types of conflicts, thereby reducing resistance to novelties, as well as to conflict as a negative phenomenon.
The improved conflictological competence of a manager has a positive influence on behavior of teachers and students, promoting a new organizational culture of relations. All this promotes the individual cognitive and personal psychological development of school managers, creating conditions for the sustainable development of school and modern society by harmonization of its requirements to education.
References
1. Анцупов А. Я., Баклановский С. В. Конфликтология в схемах и комментариях. - М., 2006.
2. Белич В. Атрибутивен анализ на педагогическата дейност. С.,
1983.
3. Галтунг Й. Разрешаване на конфликти. С., СИЕЛА, 2005.
4. Галустова О. В. Конфликтология (вопросах и ответах). Уч. пособие. - М., 2006.
5. Гришина Н. В. Психология конфликта. - М., 2008.
6. Громова О. Н. Кнфликтология.(Курс лекцей). - М.: ЭКМОС,
2000. 1
1
For practical usefulness of the use of the pedagogical model, see: Стефанова М., Символика и знаковост на научно-педагогическото творчество. Унив. Изд. “Св. Климент Охридски”, С., 1995, and especially Стефанова М., Педагогическата иновация. С., ПЕТЕКСТОН, 2005.
175
7. Ненова С. Дидактическа компетентност за иновативно развитие на организационно-училищната среда. С., Университетско издателско Стопанство, 2003.
8. Стефанова М., Символика и знаковост на научно-педагогическото творчество. Унив. изд. "Св. Климент Охридски”, С., 1995.
9. Стефанова М., Педагогическата иновация. С., ПЕТЕКСТОН,
2005.
10. Richey, R. C., Fields, D. C., & Foxon, M. (with Roberts, R.C., Spannaus, T. & Spector, J. M.,). Instructional design competencies: The standards (3rd ed.). Syracuse, NY: ERIC Clearinghouse of Information and Technology. ED 453 803.
11. http://poi-2007.hit.bg/ Ненова С., Аспекти в изследването на професионалната пригодност.
12. http://poi-2007.hit.bg/ Рашева-Мерджанова, Я. Консултиране на интересите от детско-юношеска към зряла възраст (холограмен модел и реализация).
176
